Party list sends relief aid to typhoon-hit areas

WITH the partnership of a global food banking organization and the support of Speaker Martin G. Romualdez, the Anakalusugan (AK) Party-list has marked its first 100 days in office by providing free medical services to 2,091 patients and food packs to victims of Typhoons “Karding” and “Paeng” in Bulacan, Batangas, and Antique.

In the AK medical missions, various medical, dental, optical, and laboratory services were extended to patients during the recent Congressional recess last month, where the solon pointed out that these were done to augment the inadequacy of government health services in rural areas.

“The number of patients willing to avail these free services goes to show that PhilHealth needs to widen its coverage and, most importantly, improve its case rate, which hasn’t been updated for the past 20 years,” Reyes said.

In the aftermath of typhoons “Karding” and “Paeng,” Anakalusugan Party-list embarked on the distribution of relief goods containing rice, food packs, water, and hygiene kits to victims in Bulacan and Antique, backed by truckloads of supplies provided by Speaker Romualdez and Rise Against Hunger-Philippines led by Jomar Fleras.

“We could not have done this without the quick support of the Speaker and the men and women of Rise Against Hunger-Philippines, who recognized the severity of the situation. They acted swiftly, and our local network of volunteers delivered the goods to the most affected families,” reported Reyes.

The medical missions proved to be a “more proactive use” of the congressional downtime for the Anakalusugan Party-list representative.

“As public servants, our duty to the Filipino people does not begin and end in the halls of Congress. Being on the ground and listening to their needs is indeed a more proactive use of the break to discern what more laws and measures we should pass to respond to these necessities,” the solon said.

“I look forward to more productive years in service to prove to those who believed in us that we are not wasting a single dime of their taxes and that their trust is not wasted in us,” Reyes added.

Upon assumption to office, the Anakalusugan Party-list representative retained its Vice Chairmanship in the Committee on Health and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Special Committee on Food Security and the Special Committee on Southern Tagalog Development while being a member of 13 other Congressional committees.

To date, Reyes has filed 21 bills and resolutions and co-authored eight measures in the House of Representatives. Among these is the Free Annual Medical Check-up Act, Medical Bill Transparency Act, Regional Specialty Hospitals Act, a bill addressing the social health insurance crisis, and another aimed at strengthening Mental Health Services in schools.

He also filed resolutions prompting an investigation of the loopholes of the government’s vaccination program, seeking to put a stop to the problematic operations of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), and another measure investigating the reported fund depletion adversely affecting the actuarial life of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

“By virtue of what we were sworn to when we took office, nothing will stop us in pursuing our goals on the health of our countrymen, including instituting corrective measures to address fiscal injustices, structural defects and operational problems in the energy industry,” Reyes said.

“With a steadfast resolve to uphold the very values that brought us to this opportunity to serve our people, we hope that we are on the right trajectory towards achieving our vision of a healthier nation,” he added.